Eat, travel, play and chill: Dolc pattiserie, Fleurdesel & good coffee

Today was hubby’s birthday and I took leave from work to celebrate this special day for him.

Starting with breakfast, I got him the passion fruit meringue and Charlotte from Dolc pattiserie

Their best seller was the beautiful red Charlotte made of strawberry, basil and mascarpone. The taste was truely unique with strawberry, and a hint of basil which surprisingly seem to work well together. The outer mascarpone layer was creamy and light and covered with a thin red chocolate shell. However for me and hubby, we preferred the passionfruit meringue as we like the texture of the tart and the passionfruit taste which goes well with coffee.

For lunch, I made a reservation at fleurdesel, a French restaurant which we had never tried before but happen to chance upon it while we were at Baristart coffee and it was just opposite.

For its set lunch, there are 2 types:

The 4 course set lunch at $58++ per person or the 3 course set lunch at $48++ per person. Hubby took the 3 course excutive set lunch as he likes eating lamb while I took the 4 course set lunch.

We were both served this light paste-like dish which were not inside the menu and was supposed to cleanse our palettes, together with some sourdough bread. There are 2 types of sea salts which came from France, available for us to try. The dark coloured sea salt was infused with tomatoes and the other was infused with rosemary

For my first dish, it’s the pan seared duck liver with some figs on the side. It was so good! The outer layer was seared to a crispy and light texture without being overcook and the inside was soft and buttery without the organ smell. Hubby tried some and he said it was better than the ones he tried in France.

Hubby said he love his lamb main dish as it was v well cooked. The meat was v tender but not bloody at all. For me, I don’t eat lamb so I din try it.

For my main dish, I chose the la bouillabaisse which was prawns, squid, scallops, potatoes etc. It looked v pretty and the seafood was v fresh.

Hubby’s dessert was the la baba which was dark rum baba with vanilla whipped cream and passionfruit.

Initially, it did not look appealing to me as I thought it was too heavy and filling with the huge sponge cake and the big lump of whipped cream. But when we tasted it, we were blown away by how good it was! The alcoholic smell from the rum was quite strong but when we bite into the sponge, which was totally soaked with the dark rum, it dun have any of the strong alcohol taste at all. Instead, it had a pleasantly sweet taste and goes well with the light whipped cream and the citrusy passionfruit. It’s so addictive that it was gone before I even know it. Learnt a new French dessert word today and it’s La Baba......definitely a must try!

The restaurant was quite small so it’s recommended to make a reservation. It was full house today. Half of the guests were Caucasians. The owner and French chef, Alexandre Lazachmeur was there as well cooking and manning the open kitchen. Good quality authentic French food, highly recommended.

After a satisfying good lunch, we drop by five oars coffee roaster for coffee to perk ourselves up from drowsy food coma.

We had never tried this coffee joint but it was always packed with ppl whenever we passed by.

Ordered their house blend ice white. At first sip, it instantly reminds me of arabica coffee, another coffee joint which was always packed with ppl. The taste was v similar but hubby said the aftertaste was more balanced as compared to arabica. Arabica was nice but bit expensive, so now I know where to get my coffee fix at a cheaper price. Their house blend coffee beans are available for sale at 200g for $16.

Hubby wanted to visit the National Museum of Singapore after all that food. It’s been a long long time since we came here. There are hardly anyone around since there are no more to tourists due to covid-19.

Admission was free today not because we are Singaporeans but because today happens to be the 133th anniversary of the museum and it’s open house day. Kinda sad coz if it wasn’t for this pandemic, there will sure be many ppl and a lot of events happening.